Tall folio. 1 f. (title), 57, [1] (publisher's catalogue of Ravel's works) pp. [PN] D. & F. 12, 143. Original publisher's silver wrappers printed in red with white highlights, in the high Deco style. Title printed in red. With "Transcription pour deux Pianos par Lucien Garban" printed to head of page 1, "Ch. Douin, grav...Poincons Durand & Cie." to lower left and "Paris, Imp. A. Mounot" to lower right margin of page 57. Delicate decorative wrappers worn and creased, frayed at spine and edges as generally seen in this edition, else fine.
Rare first edition of this arrangement. Orenstein p. 240.
Ravel was such a fine pianist that it is surprising he did not write a concerto earlier, and fortuitous that just before his final, debilitating illness set in in 1932 he just managed to squeeze in two. This G major concerto was the first to be conceived – he had had hopes of polishing up his rusty piano technique in order to play it himself – but before he could set to work on it seriously there came the commission from the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost an arm in the war and was anxious to have a concerto for the left hand only. The two works occupied Ravel for the whole of 1930 and most of 1931, the Concerto for Left Hand being finished first and performed in November 1931, the G major one played (in the end) by its dedicatee Marguerite Long with the Lamoureux Orchestra under the composer’s direction, on January 14, 1932, first in Paris, then on tour all over Europe. Ravel insisted it was written “very much in the same spirit as those of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. The music of a concerto, in my opinion, should be gay and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or dramatic effects.” He went on to admit that the work contained touches of jazz, “but not many”.
Tall folio. 1 f. (title), 57, [1] (publisher's catalogue of Ravel's works) pp. [PN] D. & F. 12, 143. Original publisher's silver wrappers printed in red with white highlights, in the high Deco style. Title printed in red. With "Transcription pour deux Pianos par Lucien Garban" printed to head of page 1, "Ch. Douin, grav...Poincons Durand & Cie." to lower left and "Paris, Imp. A. Mounot" to lower right margin of page 57. Delicate decorative wrappers worn and creased, frayed at spine and edges as generally seen in this edition, else fine.
Rare first edition of this arrangement. Orenstein p. 240.
Ravel was such a fine pianist that it is surprising he did not write a concerto earlier, and fortuitous that just before his final, debilitating illness set in in 1932 he just managed to squeeze in two. This G major concerto was the first to be conceived – he had had hopes of polishing up his rusty piano technique in order to play it himself – but before he could set to work on it seriously there came the commission from the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost an arm in the war and was anxious to have a concerto for the left hand only. The two works occupied Ravel for the whole of 1930 and most of 1931, the Concerto for Left Hand being finished first and performed in November 1931, the G major one played (in the end) by its dedicatee Marguerite Long with the Lamoureux Orchestra under the composer’s direction, on January 14, 1932, first in Paris, then on tour all over Europe. Ravel insisted it was written “very much in the same spirit as those of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. The music of a concerto, in my opinion, should be gay and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or dramatic effects.” He went on to admit that the work contained touches of jazz, “but not many”.